Sweet Summer Dreams Dreamcatcher: Part I

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Teal, pink and gold with just a touch of magic and imagination! A dreamcatcher is the perfect dreamy summertime project for all ages! This whimsical piece was made for my 5-year-old nice,sure, but I did love making it and wanted one of my own when I was done…and I am 27!

Can I just start by saying how hard it is shopping for kids nowadays? Wait, let me rephrase that, how hard it is to shop for kids on a budget these days!? Everything is so high tech and expensive! I decided that since Bella was only 5, and bursting with imagination and spunk, that a whimsical and “magic” hand-made dreamcatcher would do the trick.

Before I started the project I needed some inspiration of my own so I headed to the craft store. I stocked up on a ton of different ribbons in pinks, teals and shimmery golds! A few hot pink and black feathers later and I was just about done. I also had an old long chain necklace with bright and vibrant beads that had broke last summer, the perfect piece for embellishment!

Let’s get started!

Step 1. Choose a hoop. I used the inside of a wooden embroidery hoop. You can get these is all different sizes and they are very inexpensive.

Step 2. Sand down your hoop using sand paper. Don’t forget to sand down the inside too!

Step 3. Dying your hoop. Using Imaging Crafts/Tsukineko All-Purpose Ink and a makeup sponge, I rubbed my entire hoop in a Cherry Pink color. These inks are fabulous and come in so many colors, but are permanent, so wear gloves if you don’t want pink fingers!

(All-Purpose Inks can be used on most porous surfaces: fabric, wood, paper, leather, unglazed ceramic and much more! They are a permanent water-based, non-toxic liquid ink. Oh yea, and they are washable too! Check out a project using them on fabric here.)

After the ink dries for a few minutes, lightly sand down the hoop again to prep for another layer of All-Purpose Ink.

TIP: Speed up your Ink drying time by hitting your hoop with a Heat Tool.

For my second layer of Ink I choose the Vegas Gold All-Purpose Ink. This gold ink is super creamy and is packed with shimmer, I love it! Using a separate makeup sponge, I rubbed the entire hoop with a thin coat of gold shimmer.

Your hoops is now complete! Look at that shimmery Vegas Gold!

Before I show you how-to weave a dreamcatcher, please take a quick look at this short video. I don’t know about you, but seeing it done in person really helps! In this video you’ll see that this person decided to wrap her hoop first, then proceed to weaving. If you want to just see the weaving part, fast forward to 52 seconds.

Let’s get weaving…

Step 4. Tie the knot (tee-hee). For your dreamcatcher ‘net’ you will want to use a round and thin string or cord, rather than a ‘ribbon’ per say. I choose a cream cord from May Arts so I could add some color and detail to the cord later.

Pull at least a few feet of cord from your spool and tie it onto your hoop. The larger the hoop, the more cord you will need.

Step 5. Making the loop! Once your knot is nice and tight pull your cord over a few inched and pull it over the top of the hoop.

As you pull it around your hoop, pull it back trough the ‘hole’ you’ve created. (As seen above)

Go ahead, take a close look above. You’ll want to get familiar with this first step and loop because the rest of the weaving is doing the exact same loop over and over…

(Don’t quite get it? Check out the video a few steps back, that might help!)

Step 6. Pull tight and loop it again! Once you pull your cord through…pull it tight. You should have little to no slack in your cord.

Continue this step every few inches until you reach your knot again.

Step 7. Loop the knot and continue weaving. Once you reach your knot, take your cord and pull it through the first ‘hole’ you had created and then back around the bottom of the knot. There is no right or wrong way to do this step, I just found this way to be easier. Rather than tying another knot, just loop and continue…

(I made these next few pictures nice and big so you can see the details!)

Step 8. Round 2. Just keep weaving!To start your second ’round’ of weaving you’ll want to pull your cord to the center of your first section and make your loop. Continue the same technique and keep looping in the center of each following section. As you loop you will see that your cord starts to “pull’ on your tight sections from before. That’s great! That’s exactly what you want!

Step 9. Get it? Got it? Go! Now that you’ve got the idea down, continue weaving and looping until you reach the center. Once you think you like your weave tie off your cord.

TIP: Your string will be in the center of your dreamcatcher so tie off a very tight knot and cut your string as close to the knot as possible. I added a bit of hot glue over my knot once I cut the string so it did not come undone.

The hard part is over my friend, you have now weaved your very own dreamcather! Now is the fun part…..decorating! Shimmer and shine, glitter and gold…now I am going to put this project on HOLD!